The Labour Party’s standard bearer in the 2023 election,
Peter Obi, Peter Obi has decried the relentless scene of corruption that
Nigeria has become.
Reacting to the huge N70 trillion budget fraud uncovered by
the BudgIT in the 2025 federal budget, Obi said Nigeria remains a relentless
scene of corruption.
However, a statement by Ibrahim Umar, the spokesman of POMR,
quoted Obi as saying: “I have consistently maintained that for this country to
make progress, Nigeria must cease to function as a crime scene and be
repositioned for genuine development.
“This entrenched corruption – persistent and deeply rooted –
must be nipped in the bud if there is to be any meaningful turnaround.
“How else can we explain the distressing revelations by
BudgIT, which uncovered a staggering ₦7 trillion in questionable projects
inserted into the 2025 national budget? I am convinced that this figure
represents only a fraction of the actual amount misappropriated. These findings
are deeply troubling and confirm my long-held position that we have turned our
country into a crime scene. We must urgently and aggressively combat
corruption, misappropriation, and fiscal recklessness to manage our resources
effectively and efficiently, and invest in critical areas of development:
health, education, and lifting our people out of poverty.
“The ₦7 trillion uncovered as fraudulently inserted into the
2025 budget is even greater than the combined allocations to the Ministry of
Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty
Alleviation, and the Ministry of Agriculture – ministries that are fundamental
to national development.
“To be precise: The Ministry of Education was allocated
₦3.52 trillion, The Ministry of Health received ₦2.48 trillion, The Ministry of
Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation was allocated ₦260 billion, and
the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security received ₦636.08 billion.
“Combined, these four ministries were allocated ₦6.896
trillion—an already inflated amount—yet still less than the ₦7 trillion
dubiously inserted into the budget.
“That ₦7 trillion figure is even more than the ₦6.1 trillion
allocated to national security—at a time when Nigeria is among the most
terrorised nations in the world.
“This brazen impunity by our leaders is precisely why the
country cannot invest adequately in education, in the face of the existence of
nearly 20 million out-of-school children. It is the same corruption that has crippled
primary healthcare, resulting in alarming levels of malnourished children. We
face widespread hunger, yet our leaders neglect agricultural investment due to
persistent mismanagement and a lack of accountability. The same disregard
affects our capacity to fund national security effectively, or to support
Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which are vital to national
growth.
“These glaring acts of corruption reinforce my position:
Nigeria has been reduced to a crime scene.
“We must confront this corruption, misappropriation, and
fiscal recklessness with unwavering resolve. Our national resources must be
transparently managed and strategically invested in key sectors—health,
education, and poverty alleviation—to secure a better future for our people. We
must turn this nation around. A new Nigeria is POssible.”
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